Former Olympic champion Rossi: “After the heart attack, a second life began”

At the launch of the campaign From heart to soul, ‘monitor blood values, do not self-manage but listen to doctors’

“During a long bike ride I felt unwell, I thought it was congestion but I felt that there was something wrong with my whole body. I stopped, called the ambulance and from the route they understood that I was having a heart attack. At that moment my second life began, I realized that I was no longer the athlete who won the Olympics, but that I could also be subject to these unexpected events”. This is how Antonio Rossi, winner of 3 Olympic gold medals in canoeing, spoke about the cardiovascular event he had in 2021, at the launch of the Novartis campaign ‘Da quore a cuore’ today in Milan.

“I underwent surgery, they put a stent in and my treatment began,” Rossi continues. “Attention to blood tests has increased, especially on certain values” such as LDL cholesterol “which is crucial to check for those who have had heart problems like me. It is important to always listen to doctors and cardiologists because,” observes the champion, “once the fear has passed, we tend to want to self-manage.”